Water Immersion in Nephrotic Syndrome

Abstract

Water immersion up to the neck has been described in detail in a series of papers by Epstein and his colleagues dealing with the response in the normal subject and in the cirrhotic patient.^1–4 Epstein concluded that water immersion in 4 ft of water resulted in a physiological response similar to that produced by the rapid intravenous infusion of 2 liters of saline and that there was central venous distention with fluid compressed out of the lower limbs and abdomen into the central veins. These mechanisms have been discussed at length by Epstein and his colleagues in the normal and in the cirrhotic. However, an analogous situation, the response in the nephrotic patient, was ignored until we investigated the response to water immersion in 11 nephrotics.^5–8